UnNews:Spector leaves Republican Party: They're not who I am anymore

At his sanity hearing in 2006, Phil Spector said that he could become a Democrat, and that "it might be crazy not to try it."

WASHINGTON UNN– Veteran Republican record producer and convicted murderer Phil Specter of California disclosed plans Tuesday to switch parties, a move intended to boost his chances of winning his appeal on murder charges next year.

"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter said in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to the jailed producer and confirmed by his Attorney. Several prison officials said a formal announcement was expected later in the day or Wednesday.

If he wins the appeal, that would remove his felony conviction and return his voting rights, thus giving Democratic candidates in California one more vote in the next big election.

President Barack Obama called Specter almost immediately after he was informed of the decision to say the Democratic Party was "thrilled to have you," according to a White House official.

Spurned Republicans said his crime and his defection was motivated by ambition, not principle.

Specter, 72 is in his fifth year of incarceration for the murder of a Hollywood starlet, and is one of a handful of Republican moderates remaining in a California prison, a state dominated by Mormons and conservatives. Several officials said secret talks that preceded his decision reached into the White House, involving both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime fan who developed a crush on Ronnie Spector in his youth.

Specter has publicly acknowledged in recent months that in order to win an appeal, he would need the support of millions of California little people who sided with sided with Glenda, the Good Witch of the North in his closing arguments in court.

"I am unwilling to have my forty-nine year career record judged by one little murder," said the inventor of the "Wall of Sound" in the statement.

Asked by a reporter what he had to say to his cellmates, Specter replied with a smile, "I don't have to say anything to them. Can't we just be happy with the memories that we already have made?"

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement: "Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not. Let's be honest: Phil Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal freedoms. He done the crime, he need to do the time, you know what I mean."

Specter has long been one of the most durable musical producers in the recording industry. In recent years, he has battled little voices that have egged him to act out their will. "I am sorry that GOP Michael Steele feels that I have stymied his plans for world domination, but sometimes you win some. Sometimes you lose some."